Dancing for Introverts PV Cloverfield Closed

Taking a couple of turns at some odd corners and again, he got lost. He looked around and couldnt find a single person, how? There's always people around, but not here, of all places. He looked around again, there were some pathways leading somewhere and directly to his left a set of two impressively large doors, if there would be a place to find a person to ask for directions it'd be THERE! Without thinking he just pushed the right door open... It didnt budge. He pondered for a moment, the door wouldnt move when its pushed, there doesnt seem to be anything to turn so it must go outwards. He pulled onto the handle of this huge door and it started to move, fairly easily at that, must be magic, the door is huge afterall, must be heavy. Before he knew it, the door was already halfway open and there she was, a person which could show him the way.

He casually entered, he didnt close the door behind him either and he started walking towards this person, sitting in the middle of what seems to be a large hall with a large centerstage at the end of it and several tables lined at the edges of the room. Oddly enough she was all alone, nobody else was there, for a moment he thought he was interupting something... But that lasted only a moment. He raised his hand as he continued to approach her

"Hi there!"

He was speaking carelessly, he didnt seem to mind anymore if she was doing something, moreso it seemed that it was more important to him to get his question out of the way first.

"Do you know how I get back to... Civilization?"

His question was vague, he didnt catch that himself, not until it was too late at least, he paused for a segnificant amount of time, it would be weird if he were to add onto that at this point.

The initial greeting scared the bejesus out of her, naturally, making her un-ball from her little coat-tent and hurry to yank her scarf back over the bottom half of her face. Krez whipped around to face the stranger, now in a crouching position like that of a startled cat. Of course she felt pretty stupid when all the boy did was ask for some help, and she huffed quietly as she stood up into normal human position, dusting her butt off and readjusting herself.
She gave him an expectant look during his pause, eyes narrowed at him to portray her general disdain for him even coming in. It made for a lovely awkward moment between the two of them, and eventually Kreszentia realized he wasn't going to elaborate for her any more than that. She pinched the bridge of her nose for a second, thinking of what he could possibly mean by that statment. Classes, most likely, but still. It wasn't giving her much to work with.
When she finally looked back up to him, her bitter expression now back to being a balance between neutrality and exhaustion, and she waved her hand at him vaguely. "Class?" She asked, barely bothering to raise her voice. The echo of the room would suffice for her, and if the poor lad didn't hear it then that would unfortunately be his problem, it seemed.

The girl seemed a bit timid, or was it shy? Either way, she was someone he had a bit more trouble handling. He didnt communicate well either though, to be fair he could have done a lot better, but nevertheless it was still an akward moment for both of them, he could feel it. She finally got tired of waiting and dismissively responded with "class?", sort of trying to get a grip on what Alex was talking about. He wasnt entierly sure what he was looking for either, he just thought that he wondered off too far and got into a place which he wasnt supposed to enter or maybe wasnt meant to? He figured he might as well use this opportunity to figure some things out about this place as well.

"Erm... Yes... No...? I'm not sure, I think I accidently reached this section of the building and I dont know how to... Get back..."

He stumbled on getting the right words to come out, somehow towards the end of his sentance he managed to make some coherent phrasing and get his idea across, hopefully at least. He then scratched the back of his head, looking around some more.

"I guess that it'd be best if I were to find my way back to the Griffindor dorms? I'm sorry, I'm quite new here, arrived just yesturday and when the rest got a tour around the campus I just kinda... Wondered off..."

He wasnt sure why he was sharing that, he just spontaniously did, but at least that would give this girl some insight onto whats going on and why he was here, now. Until he arrived to Hogwarts, he never knew how hard manuevering through this complex of a structure would be, he still had a hard time believing what he was seeing or expiriencing while being here, magic was a fairly new concept for him and here he is, standing inside a magical school for wizards and witches practicing magic like it was a normal, every day skill.

Well, she couldn't fault him for that. This school was a death trap if not just a maze of unnecessary corridors and other fancy magical enchantments to torment the student body. She saw no use for a lot of it but it wasn't like she had a say in the design of the buildings. Eh, the only option was to adapt now.
She could have simply dismissed him, sent him on his way again to be someone else's problem, or to just get more lost than he already was. A little bit mean, but she'd have her private time back. But on the other hand, they didn't know each other just yet. Better to not make an enemy so soon, especially if he was going to be here alongside her for the coming school year. It probably wasn't going be that bad anyway. Besides, he seemed a little unsure of her, maybe even nervous around her, which she didn't mind at all.

Krez gave in and walked towards him, tapping his arm and making a beckoning gesture with her finger as she passed him going towards the giant doors. A firm-sounding grunt was his 'verbal' signal to follow her as she put a hand on the door to push it open. Before that though, she looked back to him, seemingly waiting for him to come along.

The girl seemed a bit dismissive, she wasn't someone who'd use a lot of words either, it was fairly clear. A shy one, without a doubt, well... It will take some effort but he could get her to open up one way or another, most of them did eventually. Without even noticing she already went past him and was leading him to go out the door, pulling on his hand to start moving. Physical communication, that was not something a shy person would start off with, well, not without necessity, but then it made Alex thing, did he drive her into a corner by asking for help and now she cannot refuse the request and make herself seem rude in front of this total stranger? This whole situation was getting a bit awkward, he must admit.

He moved along as she requested, it was in order to help him traverse the school grounds after all, a request he imposed on her to begin with. Regardless he was quite grateful for that, he was quite lost to begin with, he had no clue where he was, as a matter of fact, he wasn't sure which floor they were on at this point either, he didn't want to find himself stumbling into the basement by mistake just because he wanted to find the courtyard or possibly enter the potion class when looking for the bathroom, that'd certainly be awkward to say the least. As they exited, he saw, nobody was around still. Of course not a lot of time passed since he arrived but he figured somebody would have at least passed them by that time. At this point the thought of this place being out of bounds strengthened in his mind even further, at this point he'd rather just figure out how to reach his dorm, he'd be satisfied enough with that much.

As soon as he had finally joined her outside of the ballroom, she took a hold of his sleeve and began to drag him along, as if he couldn't follow her himself. Actually, she did assume that if he had gotten this lost then he'd surely wander off while she showed him around. Like a baby duck, he needed a guide, except one who could hold his hand (or sleeve) and take him where he needed to go.
About halfway out of the hallway to the ballroom, Krez realized how rude she had been, dragging him along without so much as a 'Hello!' or 'Right this way!'. Remembering the manners she was told to try before leaving home, she looked back to the boy as she pulled him behind her. "Kreszentia." She said gruffly before turning back to watch where she was going. It didn't really matter too much to her if he introduced himself or not, but if he wanted to she wouldn't really complain. At least, if she ever spotted him again she could call out to him before he wandered off to his death in here.

Might have been thinking ahead too far, but better to think ahead than just let him get into trouble.

Without a word they departed from the mysterious room. Its been quite a while since either of them spoke up, the time passed very slowly, it felt like an hour passed when in reality it has been maybe a minute. He shook his head dismissively getting his thoughts in order. This girl while helping him was a bit tough to approach, well for the time being at least, he figured he should at least break the ice, but before he finally managed to get a word out, the girl spoke "Kreszentia" this took him by surprise. It was spoken out of context and he didn't really pick up on it being a name, rather not a person's name. What it seemed to him was her naming the location they're currently walked by, or maybe that's how the section of the school was called.

"Kreszentia, eh? Quite a complicated name for a hallway, maybe one of the founders were German? This sounds vaguely German to me..."

He figured he should at least say something, he asked for her help after all, not the other way around and even then, if he is to be good company, he cannot pass through it in utter silence.

"Hey, how long have you been going to Hogwarts? You seem to know this place quite well. Oh, I'm Alex by the way, might I get your name?"

He figured that he should at the very least give her a name to associate with his face it was a polite thing to do after all, oddly enough he didn't even consider to introduce himself until now, it was quite uncharacteristic of him but then again, he was never good with dealing with the silent types after all, maybe his struggle showed to some extent, he hoped it didn't.

"Hey, I've seen some of these paintings before at that place with the shifting staircases, are they all moving like that or are these just special?"

He decided that chatting is going to ease the tension between them, a more relaxed environment will make it more fun for the both of them after all, besides, he is naturally curious, especially for a place like this.

Amazing. He either hadn't heard her or dismissed what she said as gibberish. Krez used her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, trying not to get frustrated with this boy. He was new, just like her, but more curious than she was. She would have to cut him some slack.
As she continued pulling him along, she turned to him for the second time, deliberately pointing to herself for clarification. "Kreszentia." She repeated, a little more sternly. "First year." She wasn't going to admit that she didn't know the entire school that well, just the way to the library and the dorms slash common rooms. She'd let him believe she knew more than that for now. Almost as soon as she turned her attention back again, he asked yet another question. He was going to be a hit with the teachers, she could already tell.

"Zhe paintings..." Krez began, now at a place where she couldn't pretend she was smart and experienced. "Are veird." Thinking about them made her kind of uncomfortable. Why were they alive? Could they move? Were they a security system? How did they entertain themselves?
She shook those thoughts out of her head, not wanting to think about the unfortunate lives of the paintings that lined the walls of the school. She could never decide if she pitied them or respected them.

The girl stopped and pointed at herself as she repeated that word, apparently she was this Kreszentia... Now he wasn't sure if it was her name or a word which describes her in her native language, though she did seem annoyed so he didn't pursue it further. She then continued walking and after a bit of deliberation responded to his question. The paintings are weird, that was her response. If it didn't show before, now it was blatantly obvious, she wasn't English at all, if anything her accent was coated with a thick German mannerism, a foreigner, he didn't meet many of those but in a place like this it makes sense that they'd gather people from all over the world... A thought occurred to him in that instant.

"All over the world? Really? Wouldn't they like us have a magical school too? This is weird, beyond weird, we didn't have anything quite like it in London... No wonder she doesn't speak much! Its a language barrier is what it is!"

His thought was cut short as his eyes darted to his right. A tall painting was hanging there lined with the rest, this one was somewhat taller though, showing a garden with some people sitting by on a small blanket with an umbrella over their heads. They had fancy attire and they were eating some sort of fruit. It seemed life-like, almost too real. And like the others, they were moving too, going on with their lives and living the moment. He wondered, what if it wasn't really a painting, this place is magic after all, what if it was some sort of a window or even a door frame to another place. He almost forgot that he was in company at this point. He suddenly took a sharp turn spinning on his hill and ran towards the wall, leaping forward trying to dive right into the painting only to find a solid resistance. He hit his head hard against the wall and fell back. He looked up, tears starting to form from the throbbing head pulsating with heat and he stared down at the very confused individuals now staring back at him from within the painting. He shook his head, got off the floor and planted his hands onto the surface of the canvas feeling it, trying to see maybe he did something wrong, maybe if he were to grab whatever was blocking him and move it out of his way he could get through.

No such luck, it was a painting, nothing more. Realizing it he looked back with a fairly confused expressing on his face, eyes slightly red and blushing with embarrassment.

"This is... Just a painting... Right?"

Asking as if to confirm he is not delusional, or maybe the thought that he could jump into another place or even another world was a delusional thought all on its own. He wasn't sure what concepts he could take from those books he was reading and what he should discard, this was new to him, so new he had to test everything, unfortunately it seems to come at the expense of his very own health. Still, he was determined to discover and uncover every secret this place holds, well at least at arm's length. For now, he only learned that you cannot jump through a painting, it doesn't work that way.